The owner of British performance hall was so off-put by a recent performance by Finley Quaye that he stepped on stage after 30 minutes and gave the Scottish musician the boot. And it was all caught on film and the performance was being filmed for online broadcast.
Matt Roberts, owner of the Convent in Gloucestershire, interrupted Quaye’s apparently improvisational set — which sounded like a an extend soundcheck — and told the crowd: “I am so sorry guys. I have worked in the industry 28 years, I have a reputation. And the reputation is, small as it is, but when somebody doesn’t turn up for soundcheck at three in the afternoon, and I smile… and then at 9 o’clock they turn up. And then I have a beautiful, beautiful crowd of people who I love, and then they come, and they fuck my stage.”
He turned to the band, who remained on stage while Quaye retreated to the back quarters, and said, “You guys, go home.”
He offered those in the crowd a refund on their £20 tickets.
“The music industry and live music is beautiful,” Roberts continued, “and I suffer from alcoholism and stuff and I have issues in my life but I am professional. And I’m sorry I will not sit here and pollute my venue with bullshit.”
Watch the video below. Roberts appears around the three-minute mark.